INTERESTING RELIC AT MUSEUM

Southland Times, Issue 24986, 24 February 1943, Page 4

INTERESTING RELIC AT MUSEUM

Ancient Cuneiform Tablet A small clay tablet bearing a cuneiform inscription has been presented to the Southland Museum by Mr A. Robertson, of Spey street. The tablet, which was used as a message form in the year 2200 8.C., states that “ten gazelles have been sent as a sacrifice from Ur of the Chaldees.” Cuneiform writing, of which the component parts or letters are wedgeshaped, was used by the ancient peoples of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria, Elam and Persia. The first date that can be assigned to the use of cuneiform writing is about 4000 B.C. and its use was continued after the birth of Christ. Mr Robertson has also donated to the museum an indenture on vellum with a seal bearing the date 1517 in the reign of Henry VIII and two remarkably well-preserved copies of newspapers, The Daily Courant, bearing the date of April 26, 1707, and the Public Occurrences, dated April 24, 1688. A certificate of admission to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George IV in 1821, a similar admission certificate to the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837, a frame of silhouettes drawn by a young woman 119 years ago, and a document signed by Queen Victoria in 1859 have also been presented by Mr Robertson. A special extra number of the Illustrated London News, dated July 16, 1879, has been presented to the museum by Miss Annie Scales. The edition records the death of Prince Louis Napoleon at the hands of African savages in the Zulu War. Miss Scales has also presented a woman’s riding spur, an ancicent candle snuffer tray, a unique scent bottle, a shell purse and a plate, salvaged from the U.S.S. Waikare, which was wrecked in Dusky Sound in 1910.

A cup carved from a piece of wood, used in the construction of the Dunedin Exhibition buildings in 1887, has been presented by Mrs I. M. Anderson, of Gladstone.

So many articlces of interest have been given to the museum that the facilities for exhibiting them have now been exhausted. An appeal has been made by the acting director of the museum (Mr D. Teviotdale) for show cases to house exhibits.